South - What's to See in the Research Triangle? (North Carolina)

Will be here just a day or two. What are the two or three best regional/local museums (NOT museums of worldwide art and science!), and the one or two best historic properties/districts and parks/botanic gardens. Any details welcome. Thanks!

Not really a museum, but an homage to Southern Cooking: Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill is the best Southern Cooking... well, except my Grandmother's....and it may even be THAT good!

Try the tomato plate (if it is in season) for an app...and the picnic platter...

Mmmmm... my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm beginning to think that "Research Triangle" isn't the most exciting way to describe a region. Maybe that term is falling out of common usage in favor of "Raleigh-Durham"?

The people who live there usually just call it the Triangle (not to be confused with the Traid, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point).

Duke Gardens at Duke University is highly respected and pretty nice. The UNC campus in Chapel Hill is nice but isn't a garden...there is an arboretum though.

As far as museums...hmmm, probably the state museum in Raleigh -- history of North Carolina.

If you're on the east side of Raleigh consider the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey.
http://www.countrydoctormuseum.org/

We take visitors to the Sarah Duke Gardens and Chapel on the Duke U campus in Durham.
http://www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens/
http://www.chapel.duke.edu/

The NC Museum of Art probably will not be what you're looking for, but the adjacent park and sculpture garden may be.
http://ncartmuseum.org/museumpark.shtml

If you're on the east side of Raleigh consider the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey.
http://www.countrydoctormuseum.org/

We take visitors to the Sarah Duke Gardens and Chapel on the Duke U campus in Durham.
http://www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens/
http://www.chapel.duke.edu/

The NC Museum of Art probably will not be what you're looking for, but the adjacent park and sculpture garden may be.
http://ncartmuseum.org/museumpark.shtml


Thanks much for these suggestions. I was there last weekend and did visit the Duke Gardens, as well as the interesting Patterson Country Store on the south edge of Durham County. Built by an 85-year-old woman pharmacist and her husband, a tobacco company executive, it's an absolute treasure trove of junk - including well over 1000 cigarette packets going back at least 50 years. The former pharmacist is still rocking in a chair there, and showed me her collection of Fords, from the Model T through the Mustang. She or her family bought them all new, and she was born on that very property. Governors have visited and raved about the place.

The Country Doctor Museum sounds interesting. Too bad I didn't know in advance.

And I did enjoy a meal at Crook's Corner. Being Sunday, I parked on the street in a "church zone" (No Parking Except Sunday 8 am - 2 pm). That we don't have in California.

There's the NC state history museum in Raleigh. When I was there, Nascar got a whole section, but neither slavery nor tobacco were mentioned!